HubSpot Audit

A HubSpot audit is like giving your HubSpot platform a health checkup. It’s all about making sure everything is running smoothly and helping your business grow. By assessing how well HubSpot meets your needs, you can keep your marketing, sales, and customer service efforts on track.

Regular audits help you catch any inefficiencies and make sure your CRM is working towards your current goals. For a growing business, this means getting the most out of HubSpot and staying aligned with your objectives. Audits can either be done internally with your staff (assuming they have the proper expertise) or externally with a Hubspot Partner. 

In this guide, we’ll cover:

• What a HubSpot audit is and why it’s important.
• The key parts of a HubSpot audit and how to assess them.
• Best practices to keep your HubSpot platform optimized for maximum results.

What is a HubSpot Audit?

A HubSpot audit is a detailed review of your CRM system to make sure it’s doing what you need it to do. It helps you evaluate different parts of HubSpot, like data quality and workflows, to keep everything aligned with your business goals.

For example, an audit can help you clean up and organize your data, which means better decisions and more accurate reports. Without regular audits, it’s easy to lose track of how effective your HubSpot setup really is. This can impact customer satisfaction, campaign success, and lead management.

Why Is a Hubspot Audit Necessary?

Here are some reasons why regular HubSpot audits are a must:

1. Data Quality
   Over time, CRM data can get messy, with duplicate or outdated entries. Regular audits help clean up your data, making sure it’s accurate and up-to-date. This leads to better campaign targeting and smarter decision-making.
2. Workflow Optimization
   As your business changes, some workflows can become outdated. An audit helps you adjust these workflows to match your current needs, making your processes more efficient.
3. Alignment With Business Goals
   Audits help keep your HubSpot setup aligned with your business goals. For example, if your focus is on cold leads and increasing brand awareness, a CRM audit can help you adjust your strategies and optimize your setup to achieve these goals.

How Often Should You Conduct Hubspot Audits?

The frequency of audits depends on your business needs:

• Quarterly: If your business is growing quickly and going through a lot of changes.
• Bi-Annually: If you’re an established company with moderate changes.
• Annually: If you’re a stable organization with fewer changes.

Step-by-Step Guide to Conducting an Audit

Conducting a HubSpot audit might seem like a big task, but breaking it down into smaller steps makes it much more manageable. Below, we’ll guide you through each part of the process so you can get the most out of your CRM.

1. Account and User Permissions Audit

Start by looking at who has access to what. Making sure each user has the right level of access is essential for keeping your data safe and your workflows efficient.

• Review User Roles: Assign access based on current responsibilities. For example, team leads might need more access than standard users.
• Enforce Security Protocols: Set up security measures like two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect sensitive information.
• Remove Inactive Users: Deactivate accounts that are no longer needed to reduce security risks.

2. Data Hygiene Audit

Clean data is the foundation of any successful CRM. This step focuses on making sure all your information is accurate and up-to-date.

• Identify Duplicates: Use HubSpot’s tools to find and merge duplicate entries.
• Validate Contact Information: Check that email addresses, phone numbers, and other contact details are correct.
• Standardize Data Entry: Make sure all information follows the same format to keep your data consistent.

3. Content Audit

Your content is what drives engagement, generates leads, and builds customer relationships. A content audit helps ensure everything aligns with your marketing goals.

• Review Blog and Landing Pages: Check metrics like average time spent on a page, bounce rate, and click-through rate to see how well your content is performing.
• Update CTAs: Make sure all call-to-actions (CTAs) are relevant and encourage users to take the next step.
• Optimize for SEO: Ensure your content follows SEO best practices, like including relevant keywords and meta tags.

4. Workflow and Automation Audit

Workflows help keep your processes running smoothly, but they need regular attention to stay efficient.

• Assess Workflow Performance: Look at metrics like engagement rates and conversion rates to see how well your workflows are working.
• Check Trigger Accuracy: Make sure the right actions are triggering workflows. For example, customer service reps should be notified when visitors fill out a form.
• Optimize Automation Paths: Remove unnecessary steps to streamline your workflows and make everything more efficient.

5. Email and Campaign Performance Audit

In this phase, you’ll focus on improving your email and campaign strategies to ensure they effectively reach your audience.

• Monitor Open and Click-Through Rates: Track key metrics like open rates and click-through rates (CTR) to identify which campaigns perform best. Adjust email content, subject lines, and delivery timing to improve engagement.
• Refine Audience Segmentation: Make sure your campaigns are reaching the right audience. Proper segmentation can significantly boost engagement and conversions.
• Implement A/B Testing: Test different elements of your emails—such as layouts, subject lines, and CTAs—to see what resonates most with your audience. Use the insights from these tests to refine your email strategy.

6. Reporting and Analytics Audit

A successful CRM setup includes reliable reporting and analytics. This phase ensures you have accurate metrics to guide strategic decisions.

• Evaluate KPI Relevance: Ensure that key performance indicators (KPIs) align with your current goals. For example, metrics like lead-to-customer rates and pipeline velocity can help measure campaign success.
• Customize Dashboards: Create dashboards that track the most important metrics for easy monitoring.
• Conduct Accuracy Checks: Verify data sources and metrics to maintain accurate reporting, which will lead to better strategic decisions.

7. Marketing Automation Strategy Audit

Your marketing automation setup needs to evolve as your business does. Regularly reviewing your automation strategies will help you maintain efficiency and effectiveness.

• Workflow Effectiveness: Check whether workflows like lead nurturing are streamlined and adjust as needed to align with engagement levels.
• Segmentation and Personalization: Refine audience segments regularly and introduce personalized content to increase engagement.
• Lead Nurturing Sequences: Review the timing and content of lead nurturing sequences to avoid overwhelming prospects and to guide them effectively through the funnel.

8. HubSpot Sales Hub Audit

The Sales Hub is crucial for managing your pipeline and ensuring that deals progress smoothly.

• Pipeline and Deal Stages: Review your current sales pipeline stages and ensure they align with your sales processes. Make adjustments as needed to improve deal flow.
• Lead Scoring: Evaluate your lead scoring system to make sure it’s effectively prioritizing the best leads. Update scoring criteria based on what’s driving conversions.
• Sequences and Task Automation: Assess sales sequences and task automations for efficiency. Remove unnecessary steps and automate routine tasks where possible.
• Sales Analytics and Reporting: Check sales metrics like deal velocity and win rates. Use these metrics to identify areas for improvement in your sales process.

9. HubSpot Service Hub Audit

Your Service Hub is key to maintaining strong customer relationships and providing excellent support.

• Ticketing System: Evaluate your ticketing system to ensure support requests are handled efficiently. Update ticket properties to better categorize and prioritize customer inquiries.
• Knowledge Base: Review your knowledge base content to make sure it’s up-to-date and helpful. Remove outdated articles and expand on content that gets frequent views.
• Customer Feedback Tools: Check customer feedback surveys like NPS and CSAT to ensure they are collecting useful information. Use these insights to improve your support processes.
• Service Automation: Streamline your support workflows to respond faster to customer needs. Ensure automation paths are optimized to deliver consistent service quality.

Best Practices For Conducting Hubspot Audits

• Schedule Regular Audits: Depending on the size and growth rate of your business, plan your audits quarterly, bi-annually, or annually.
• Engagement Scoring: Use engagement scoring to prioritize leads based on their behavior and interactions.
• Review Automation Workflows: Regularly review automated workflows to make sure they are still relevant to your evolving business goals.
• Team Collaboration: Promote collaboration between marketing, sales, and customer support teams to keep everyone aligned and working towards common goals.

Conclusion

A HubSpot audit is a comprehensive process that helps you make sure your CRM is functioning optimally and aligns with your current business objectives. By regularly auditing key components of your HubSpot setup, you can improve data quality, enhance workflow efficiency, and ensure your CRM is supporting your marketing, sales, and customer service teams effectively.

With an optimized HubSpot platform, you can achieve better data accuracy, stronger customer relationships, and a more efficient operation that drives results. Whether you conduct these audits yourself or work with a partner, taking the time to evaluate and adjust your CRM setup is crucial to long-term success.

How The Automation Strategy Group Can Help

If you’re not sure where to start or need expert help, the Automation Strategy Group offers specialized HubSpot audit services. Our team can guide you through the audit process, identify areas for improvement, and help you optimize your HubSpot setup for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.

With our expertise, you can be confident that your HubSpot platform is working hard to help your business grow. Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can support your CRM optimization journey.

FAQs

• How often should I conduct a HubSpot audit?
  It depends on your business needs, but generally, you should conduct audits quarterly, bi-annually, or annually, depending on how quickly your business is evolving.
• What are the main benefits of a HubSpot audit?
  The main benefits include improved data quality, increased workflow efficiency, stronger customer relationships, and more effective marketing, sales, and support strategies.
• Who should conduct a HubSpot audit?
  A HubSpot audit can be conducted by your internal teams or by working with a certified partner, like Automation Strategy Group, who specializes in CRM optimization.
• How much does a HubSpot audit cost?
  The cost of an audit depends on its complexity and whether it is conducted internally or by an external partner. Working with a specialized partner can provide added value and insights that might be missed by internal teams.